Know this: Natalie Portman pitched Zach Braff a Garden State musical
The actors reunited during an anniversary concert celebrating the movie's indie-pop soundtrack in 2025.
Photo: Fox Searchlight/Everett Collection
Take heed: The indie-pop indulgences of Garden State may one day evolve into its ultimate form as a musical, according to the daydreams of its director, Zach Braff. Braff was fielding online questions from fans for a feature in The Guardian, discussing such delightful things as his tenure on the work-comedy sitcom Scrubs and his gnarly demise on BoJack Horseman, when the cooing, guitar-plunking melodies of The Shins began to gather at the periphery. Soon, a question from a fan named “Haggisneepsnfatties” entered the conversation, asking whether the actor/director had ever considered making a sequel to the 2004 romantic comedy. And lo, once the fell words had been spoken and the aural power of Iron & Wine and Frou Frou swelled to nigh-cyclopean proportions, Braff did fess up that a new Garden State had occurred to him—just not in a graspable shape mortals can envision.